Born in Quebec in the middle of the last century with a surname that reveals his Ukrainian origins, Jean Kazemirchuk maintained an ambiguous relationship with this heritage for many years before it was reignited by recent events. On February 24, 2022, Russian tanks crossed the Ukrainian border. Faced with the horror and brutality of this aggression, Kazemirchuk found in his art a way to express the patriotic fervor that suddenly seized him.

Like other artists before him who have borne witness to despots’ contempt for human values—Goya’s “The Disasters of War” (1810) and Picasso’s “Guernica” (1937) are among the best-known examples—Kazemirchuk fights against the forgetting of this “dirty war.”

It is no coincidence that he chose printmaking to produce this body of work. Historically, it lends itself well to social commentary and is considered a democratic art form, as it allows for large-scale dissemination. After several experiments, he opted for drypoint engraving on Plexiglas, a process particularly suited to his preference for fine lines.

The first series of 21 prints, begun in the spring of 2022, was created using images published in the media since the start of the conflict. True to his working method, the artist deconstructed and recomposed them to create these portraits of the Ukrainian people.

An explorer of the soul, Kazemirchuk has become known for his refined pictorial style, characterized by fluid, organic forms, with the stated intention “to awaken people to their power to dream and imagine.”
Today, we find him presenting a work of stark contrasts, almost documentary in nature, that stirs a desire to rebel and to be outraged.

A second series of fourteen prints offers a more serene perspective, featuring family portraits and moments of daily life before the conflict. There is also a nod to the artist Wanda Koop, a Canadian of Ukrainian origin who was invited to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2024. But this journey back through history quickly brings to light other images of pain or shame that Jean Kazemirchuk brings to mind: the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (1986), the Babi Yar massacre (1941), and the Holodomor (1932)—tragedies that remind us that the “golden age” may never have existed.